City Hall (Manchester, New Hampshire)

The City Hall of Manchester, New Hampshire, is located at 908 Elm Street, the city's principal commercial thoroughfare. The brick-and-granite three story structure was built in 1844-45 to a design by Boston architect Edward Shaw. It presents a five-bay facade to Elm Street and a three-bay facade to Market Street (now closed off as City Hall Plaza). The center of the three-bay facade projects slightly and rises in a tower that rises two more stories above the building. When first built, the Elm Street facade was taken up by retail space on the ground floor (in a style emulating the previous city hall which stood on the site), with city offices above; the main entrance was then through the base of the tower. In 1895 the city took over the entire ground floor, moving the main entry to the center bay on Elm Street. The building is a good example of early Gothic Revival styling.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.